Archives for June 2008

5 Summer Beauty Tips for Color Shy Girls

June 19th, 2008 by Karen 6 Comments

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Hey, I know how it is to be color shy. For years I stuck to shades of brown and beige makeup because I didn’t feel bold enough for brights. If you long for color but don’t feel ready for hot pinks or bright reds, take a look at some of the subtle color ideas below.

Lip Look: Crushing on Three Custom Colors Papaya Crush!
“…I’m wearing two coats, which was just enough to achieve a subtle pop of coral color without going over-the-top. If you’re color shy but have been wanting to try a cute coral lipgloss, Papaya Crush should be a good way to get your feet (lips?) wet.”

Laura Mercier’s Creme Eye Duo: Pink Has a New Friend
“You might be wondering, “Um, is girlfriend actually wearing any eyeshadow at all in this pic?” Yup, I am! As part of the Dreamy Collection, the pink and violet shadows in the Fairytale duo are almost translucent upon application. I think they’re soft and pretty, but if you prefer bold and flashy eyeshadows, this duo might not be your cup o’ tea.”

Face of the Day: A Smokey Eye with MAC Club
“I had a lot of fun with MAC Club eyeshadow today. Its versatility makes it great for creating quick, daytime smokey eyes. I had about three seconds to put on my makeup this morning, and I owe this look to MAC Club. Paired with a few new products from Fafi and the N Collections, MAC Club helped me finish this look in 10 minutes.”

Stila Strikes Again with Stila Silk Shimmer Gloss in Kitten, Silk Eye Shadow Wash
“Fellow Stila fans, I just let out a big ol’ MEOW! Guess what? The company has just introduced two new products in Kitten, their cult classic shimmery shade of pink… Kitten is one of those pinks that looks good on a range of skin tones. Kitten’s flexibility helped make Stila’s original Kitten eyeshadow the companys best selling product.”

Sheer Ecstasy: MAC Strobe Lip Conditioner Sticks
“Imagine a nearly transparent version of your favorite brightly colored lipstick — what you’d end up with would look a lot like MAC’s new Strobe Kiss and Strobe Current Tinted Lip Conditioner Sticks, two little lovelies from MAC’s new Strobe Collection. In stick form both look bold and bright, but they apply unexpectedly sheer. Picture a transparent wash of color.”

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

Splurge or Steal: Essie Neon Delivers Chanel Nail Colors for Less

June 19th, 2008 by Karen 43 Comments

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I know I can’t be the only one out there drooling over the upcoming Chanel Robertson Boulevard limited edition nail polishes; the neon-bright shades in pink, purple, orange and yellow remind me of 1960’s pop art. I think they’ll look groovy on fingers and toes, but at $25 apiece, they sure aren’t budget friendly.

Let’s consider an option. If you’re lusting after Chanel’s upcoming Robertson Boulevard colors like I am, then Essie’s super hot Neon collection (just released this month) may help. I have yet to see the Robertson Boulevard colors in person (I’m basing this on the promo photos), so I can’t say exactly how close these Essie colors are to their apparent Robertson Boulevard equivalents, but the shades in both collections sure look close to me based on Chanel’s promo shots. And at a reasonable $8 apiece, you could buy all four Essie Neon shades for a total cost just a few dollars more than a single one of the Robertson Boulevard colors.

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Essie’s Neon Collection…

Short Shorts – hot pink matte
Mini Shorts – neon highlighter orange matte
Shorty Pants – banana yellow matte
Bermuda Shorts – bright violet matte

What do ya think of the names? Aren’t they fun? I sort of wish Essie had included a shade called Booty Shorts, ha!

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My favorite out of the four shades has to be Shorty Pants, the bright yellow. It reminds me of a perfectly ripe banana (sans brown spots).

All of the colors, with the exception of Mini Shorts, have that thick, high shine, classic finish Essie is known for. Mini Shorts doesn’t seem to be quite as shiny as the other shades are, and I’m not sure why that is, but a high shine top coat like Seche Vite should bring the shine up to par.

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Dior Fall 2008: Impression Cuir Fall Pics and Full Product List

June 18th, 2008 by Karen 32 Comments

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It being almost summer and all, let’s take a moment to wax philosophic about an upcoming fall collection slated for a summertime release: Dior’s Fall 2008 Impression Cuir makeup collection. No matter what Dior calls it, this collection looks hot. Put on your water wings, grab some sweet tea (or gin and juice, haay!) and take a look.

Due for release this August, the collection features rich, romantic colors like burgundy, plum and copper and embossed animal-inspired textures — think crocodile and python. The makeup gods say dark lipstick will be big this fall, and I’m looking forward to Fantastic Plum Rouge Dior (pictured below). I think it’ll look great with my warm winter coat and knee-high boots.

The Dior Impression Cuir Fall Collection…

Eyeshadows

2-Colour Eyeshadow ($35)

Bronzy Look #695
Silver Look #775

5-Colour Eyeshadow ($54)

Earth Tones #673
Iridescent Leather #539

Dior Impression Cuir Palette ($55)

A trio of bronze, brown and beige eyeshadows

Eye Liner

Crayon Eyeliner ($25)

Iridescent Khaki #363

Lipgloss

Creme de Gloss ($25.50)

Cream Burgundy #735
Delicious Plum #875

Ultra-Gloss Reflect ($24.50)

Lace Beige #587
Lurex Plum #877

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Lipstick

Rouge Dior ($27)

Western Beige #423
Pink Drama #559
Fantastic Plum #874
Fiction Brown #619

Lip Liner

Dior Contour ($25)

Mythical Brown #713
Mysterious Plum #988

Powder

DiorSkin Poudre Shimmer ($24)

Copper Diamond #003

Blush

DiorBlush ($38)

Pink Copper #739

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Chanel Fall 2008: Early Reviews and Swatches

June 18th, 2008 by Karen 42 Comments

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Ahhh… You know things are going well when 1) your coffee tastes better than usual, and 2) your day begins with new Chanel.

Even though it feels a little weird to talk about fall makeup in early summer, my Chanel homie just hooked me up a with few preview products from the fall 2008 collection. Autumn leaves, here I come!

The entire gold-themed collection lands at Chanel counters this July, but here are three members of the fall collection. I’ve yet to see the items I’m *really* lusting after — the Gold Fever Highlighter and the Gold Light Glossimer — in person, but these should tide me over for now.

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Rouge Hydrabase Lipstick in Great Copper ($26)

A semi-matte lipstick, Rouge Hydrabase in Great Copper feels nothing like those dry, cakey, heavy matte formulas of the 90s. I really like the formula Chanel used for Rouge Hydrabase. It’s light and incredibly moisturizing. Great Copper literally shimmers on my lips, and it almost couldn’t be easier to wear (That’s it in the picture above without a lipliner).

I can see myself wearing it to work every day. I know that wearing gloss on top of matte lipsticks sort of defeats the purpose, but I can’t wait to wear a thick layer of clear gloss on top of this. My makeup spider sense tells me it’s gonna look somethin’ fierce. Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A

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Jouse Contraste Powder Blush in Rose Dust ($40)

This beauty gives cheeks a matte, rosy plum glow. At first glance I was afraid this shade would be too cool and light for my tanned, post-vacation face, but after dusting two layers onto my cheeks I saw I was wrong to worry. Unlike light pink blushes with a tendency to look too obvious on tanned or dark skin (in a “Hey, look at me, I’m wearing blush!” kind of way), Rose Dust looks great on a tan. The shade reminds me of MAC’s Blushbaby! Still, because the pink is so light, I have a feeling it will look great on pale gals, too. Oh, and the texture? It’s soft like buttah, baby! Makeup and Beauty Blog Rating: A+
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Review: Bumble and Bumble Creme de Coco Masque

June 17th, 2008 by Karen 41 Comments

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Sorry for the late post, guys! I got home from the airport around midnight last night and woke up a little jet lagged. All morning I felt like I was slow-motion Karen, like my brain was moving at the speed of soup!

I took a nice, long shower to get my rear into gear and did much-needed post vacation beauty maintenance before heading to work. I used Volcanic Ash Exfoliator by MAC Cosmetics to exfoliate my feet and body (review to follow shortly!) and Bumble and Bumble’s new Creme de Coco Masque ($24) on my hair, a once-a-week moisturizing conditioner that’s supposed to make hair shiny, smooth and soft.

It’s the newest member of Bumble and Bumble’s Creme de Coco family and chock full of coconut oil, a common ingredient in beauty products for skin and hair. The folks at Bumble and Bumble say that Creme De Coco Masque takes coconut oil to the next level with “breakthrough Japanese technology.” I’m not exactly sure what they meant by that, but it sounds sufficiently awesome.

In a coconut and vegetable derived base, Creme de Coco also contains mango and shea butters, avocado oil, and botanical extracts of olive leaf, nettle, horsetail and mallow. I think it sounds like a yummy salad.

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I returned from Hawaii with a tan, macadamia nuts, kona coffee … and dry, crunchy, damaged hair. Go figure. There’s a certain poetry to using a product filled with tropical ingredients to repair the damage done to my hair by sun and salt water.

A few years ago I went through a bout of extra crispy hair and tried Bumble and Bumble’s Deeep (with three Eees) Conditioner, another weekly hair masque treatment. I liked it and remember that it worked back then, so I was eager to try out Bumble and Bumble’s Creme de Coco.

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Still in the shower after washing my hair, I massaged two silver dollar’s worth of Creme de Coco Masque into my hair, spending extra time to work the product into the dry ends. Directions on the bottle suggest leaving it on for at least seven minutes before rinsing, so, while I waited for the Masque to do its thang, I took the opportunity to exfoliate my body, because I’m all about multi-tasking. 🙂
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Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection 55 for Face and Body: Goodbye Zombie Tan

June 16th, 2008 by Karen 19 Comments

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I’m going to be in travel mode and midair much of the day but still wanted to check in and say hello.

Hello! 🙂

I’m sitting here in the living room of my in-law’s place listening to the neighborhood chickens go nuts (they must be sad to see me go) and hearing mangos regularly drop from tall trees with loud thuds in the backyard jungle.

Even though I won’t be hitting the beach today (or for a long time, for that matter), it’s still sunny outside, so I’ve slathered myself up with Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Lotion SPF 55 PA +++ ($37), the sunscreen I’ve reached for more than any other on this trip.

Containing two active sunblock ingredients — octinoxate (UVB protectant) and zinc oxide (UVA and UVB protectant) — Shiseido 55 blocks both kinds of damaging ultraviolet radiation. My ample “testing” over the past week also showed it to be highly water resistant — hello, a total must for my sweaty self. The product marketing claims Shiseido 55 remains active for up to 80 minutes in water. Based on my experience with it, that estimate seems about right to me.

I’m a sunscreen addict, and most of the other high SPF lotions I’ve tried either don’t absorb well — I’m talking five minutes of vigorous rubbing to sufficiently cover one arm — or they leave a whitish-grey film on my skin, aka zombie tan. Shiseido overcame both issues with this product. It absorbs quickly and doesn’t leave a white or grey cast.

BEAUTY ALERT: MAC Cosmetics Coupon Code

This morning a gal pal at MAC sent this much appreciated coupon for their online friends and family sale. Good today only. Type in MACFF8 at checkout to get free shipping and 15% off your purchase. Cool Heat, anyone?

Many sunscreens, especially high SPF ones, feel thick and greasy like Vaseline. Shiseido 55 doesn’t. It never feels sticky, greasy or uncomfortable at all, not even on my neck, and I totally dig the light, beachy fragrance.

Yes, $37 is a lot to pay for a 3.3 oz bottle of sunscreen when you can buy a bottle of BullFrog Sunblock for $8, but this is our skin we’re talking about. I put the bulk of my skin care budget toward sun protection because of how crucial it is to wrinkle prevention. This product is worth its weight in gold.
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3 Simple Travel Beauty Tips

June 15th, 2008 by Karen 35 Comments

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“I’m on my way, I’m on my way, home sweet home.” — Motley Crue

Today is my last full day in Hawaii. I head home tomorrow, and, as is the case after most vacations, I feel both a sense of sadness (crap, I have to go back to the real world?) and extreme relief (I can’t wait to sleep in my own bed).

As I rifled through the bag I’ve been living out of for the past week, I realized I learned quite a few things on this trip, some of them beauty-related. Most were born out of my bad habit of waiting until the last minute to pack.

What I Learned on Summer Vacation

Bring Wet Ones Travel Packs to clean makeup brushes. These are convenient no matter what kind of vacation you’re planning. In humid locales, brush heads used with moist products like concealers never completely dry out and become breeding grounds for mold and bacteria. I’m so glad I remembered to toss a few of these travel-sized anti-bacterial wipes into my makeup bag for the trip. The packaging didn’t take up lots of space, and I can clean all of my brushes with a single wipe.

Body lotion can double as shaving cream in a pinch. In my last-minute frenzy to pack, I forgot a few things, one important one being shave cream. I had to improvise because hairy bikini lines are totally not cute. Out of desperation I tried shaving with Curel lotion and my trusty Venus Breeze razor. Lo and behold, it actually worked pretty darn well. No bumps and a close shave, too.

Face lotion doubles as eye makeup remover. Would you believe I also forgot to pack eye makeup remover? I had travel samples of both Philosophy’s Hope in a Jar ($28) and H2O+’s Night Oasis ($36) moisturizer and both did a fine job removing waterproof mascara. To use it I worked a dollop onto my lashes and lids with my fingertips, and then wiped it off with a cotton ball.

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Mariah Carey Hairstyle Celebrity Poll

June 14th, 2008 by Karen 9 Comments

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Pop diva extraordinaire Mariah Carey visited the island of Oahu last week to film a video for her song, I’ll Be Lovin’ U Long Time. I was really hoping to run into her at the mall or Matsumoto’s Shave Ice, but, alas, that didn’t happen. Instead, to get my Mariah fix, I listened to some of her songs (Vision of Love was the *jam*, ya’ll) and looked at old and new pictures of her on a few fan sites. One of the things I noticed was how her hair has evolved over the years. I liked her tight, old-school curls, but I’m partial to the big, bouncy curls she wears a lot now.

In other Mariah news (can’t you tell I’m a fan?), Women’s Wear Daily reports that she just recently released a new perfume called Luscious Pink, created in conjunction with Elizabeth Arden. A followup to last year’s M by Mariah Carey, Luscious Pink is a floral with notes of Sicilian bergamot, Tahitian tiare petals, lily of the valley, sandalwood and white musk. I haven’t caught a whiff of it, so that’s off the marketing.

The collection includes eau de parfum sprays in three sizes â€” 1 oz. for $39.50, 1.7 oz. for $55 and 3.3 oz. for $65 â€” as well as a 6.8-oz. body lotion for $28. I guess it’s so new that it’s not yet listed on the Elizabeth Arden site. When I get back home this week, I’m going to try to get my hands on a bottle and will let you know what I think. If you get your hands on it between now and then, let me know if it moves you.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen